TogetherintheUK Launch Writing Competition
24th November 2020
Marshall E-Learning is proud to support TogetherintheUK, a social enterprise that tells stories of what it is like to migrate to the UK. We know the importance of sharing stories in creating empathy and counteracting unconscious bias and we would like to invite the readers of this blog to support the competition by sharing the link with international students and with any first or second migration migrants in your network.
TogetherintheUKs Special Projects Manager, Isy Paton talks more about their latest initiative below.
TogetherintheUK helps to support migrants moving to the UK to live an inclusive life by sharing stories from other migrants. Since 2015 they have shared hundreds of peer on peer life stories, helping migrants overcome challenges and offering useful information and advice. https://www.togetheirntheUK.co.uk.
Arriving in the UK can be a tough time, with lots to learn, especially when English is not your first language, but there are also a lot of good things that come out of those big life changes. The TogetherintheUK creative writing competition provides first and second-generation migrants to the UK the chance to tell their stories either by short story, poem or essay. Our ambition is to find new insights and to find the next generation of brilliant migrant writers. The competition has two categories: Over 18 and Under 18.
Entries will be reviewed by a panel of inspiring judges, most of whom are first or second generation migrants. The panellists include: Labour politician Lord Dubs, who knows from personal experience how disorientating it can be arriving in a new country, having come to the UK from the Czechoslovakia in 1930. Jonathan Portes, a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at King’s College; London, whose talents include synthesizing complex topics like migration into something easily understood. Publisher of Victorian Press and writer, Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes who came to the UK from Chile in 1992. Sunder Katwala, the Director of identity and integration think-tank, British Future, whose career includes working as a Commissioning Editor at MacMillan and as lead writer for The Observer and Nazek Ramadan, originally from Lebanon, who started Migrant Voice ten years ago, a way of speaking out on issues of injustice and working to strengthen different communities. We are very proud that David Marshall will be judging the poetry together with the publisher Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes.
Prizes including a Chrome Workbook (donated by Marshall’s) a place on Migrant Voice’s media lab training, an illustration of your work, career counselling. In the Under 18 category, we are offering cinema vouchers, £100, a scooter and an Iphone 6s. Plus, the opportunity to perform your entry at the next TogetherintheUK’s next event.
Entries are open now for both the adult and children’s categories. Don’t miss the opportunity to tell your story by submitting your short story, poem or essay by 21 January 2021 –
https://www.togetherintheuk.co.uk/creative-plus/
“I love how [TogetherintheUK] find different stories from different people, I have learnt so much from reading them about how people arrive in the UK and what works for them in building their lives here.” David Marshall, Founder of Marshall E-Learning.
